The last two barrels

We finally found and purchased the last two barrels we need for our 2008 wine. As the Duke Boys would say: "Yeeee hawwwww!"

The fine folks at HDV set us up with 2 neutrals at a C-note each. Stephane was very cool about the exchange, even though he was in that middle of harvest sleep deprivation state that most of the wine world is in right now. He even took time out to give me a barrel rolling lesson.

Thinking of renaming the Ford Escape the "General Lees." Get it?

Wanna know why you're not getting laid tonight?

Four reasons...

1) Wine 2.0 in NY


We travelled out to NYC and attended Wine 2.0 on Thursday. We figured it would be a good chance to meet some of the folks that are marrying wine with technology, see some neat uses of said technology and drink some good wines. What we came away with was the realization that these are the very early days of this wine-technology marriage.


Highlights -
hanging w/Michael Brill at the Crushpad table - discussing harvest, fish tank heaters, weather and ...
Manning the Crushpad table which allowed for some more interaction with not just the folks manning the other tables but those walking the hall
being handed a couple bottles of wine just 'cause someone yelled in my ear
Papaya King after the event

Things we wanted to see:
More folks in both traditional uses (wine resellers, distributors, etc...) and new uses (bloggers, wine tracking software, wine making software, games, etc...)
demonstrations from the participants to accompany the couple speakers.
More local representation (since it was in NYC it would have been great to see more NY State wine representation)

All in all it was worthwhile for us to dip our feet in and mingle a bit. I look forward to seeing what comes down the pike in the coming months and years.

2) NY Wine in NY

We were able to make a couple fun wine stops in the city. The first was to Chambers Street Wine. Chambers Street is known for being one of the best wine shops in NYC and we could see why. For folks coming from the left coast a trip to an NYC wine shop is all about Europe and we weren't disappointed. Chambers street not only has a great selection of wines from the other side of the Atlantic but they are also really nice and helpful folks. Only disappointment: we didn't buy anything this visit (our fault not theirs).

After Chambers Street we wandered over to Vintage NY and spent at least an hour with them discussing all things NY wine, tasting some good whites, an interesting pinot noir and an incredible vidal ice wine (which did get us in the buying mood). This is a great place to stop by for some good local wine and to talk with some folks that are really passionate about the NY wine scene.



3) Baseball in NY

As two baseball fans we couldn't help but catch the very last night game EVER at Yankee Stadium.

Even for someone like myself that has always loved to hate the Yankees I couldn't help but feel the energy of this incredible park and be in awe over the enthusiasm of the fans that even with their team out of the playoffs showed up in droves and cheered like it was October. I hope, for NY's sake, that the new ballpark cam come close to what this ball park has been for the past 85 years.


4) Friday Night Jersey City


We got wrapped into the birthday celebrations for a 25 year old NJ bartender named Kim (the drunker KIm got the more Kim absolutely loathed us). Wrapped into a birthday party by just sitting at the right end of the bar. I'm not going to go into too many details about this night other then Dan being handed a dime bag by a two time ex-marine pinot gris spritzer sipping used car salesman ("I put asses in seats") and Kim, in her last fighting chance of drunken anger pointing to the two of us and saying:
"Wanna know why you two are not getting laid tonight?
...
"4 reasons..." (insert incoherent drunkenness followed by her wandering off)

fwiw, we could think of more than 4.

Outside of NY the weather has been a little unnerving on the west coast with rain on the horizon and grapes that are slowing down as the weather cools. We'll be crushing soon but through the continuation of an unpredictable year the schedule Dan posted previously has been made obsolete.

How to Convert a Puncheon (the punx way)

Today we converted our puncheons to fermentation vessels. I am sure there is a correct way to do this. Here is the deux punx method. Please do not try to attempt at home.

Step 1. Drink before using power tools.

Step 2. Drill pilot holes.

Step 3. Try to saw the top out.


Step 4. Give up on sawing and hammer the crap out of it!


Step 5. Show the world your ass crack.


Step 6. Finished barrels.


Step 7. Free drunken warrior costume with each puncheon.

Publish Post

where are the punx?

if the weather, the grapes and the sugars all obey us, this is our tentative harvest schedule. it is subject to daily, even hourly, changes.

right around the corner

So the panic and the excitement are both setting in as we've now come to the realization that we have just over two weeks until the first of TWO harvests. The good news: it now appears these two are not going to happen at the same time (as previously feared). 

Pinot is just around the corner and in a couple weeks we'll be up in Humboldt in some sort of beverly hillbillies assortment of truck and trailer - picture the two of us driving down the 101 listening to loud music oblivious to the fact that grapes are flying out of the trailer and striking the vehicles behind us. 

All in the bay area that wish to help sort (we'll feed you wine!) count yourselves recruited!

Young pinot humboldt

For all of you in WA that wish to help sort you have a couple weeks longer to become familiar with the inner workings of the syrah grape.

syrah wahluke slope

We've also come to realize why companies end up blowing so much of their budgets on marketing departments. While i was suffering away in the north bay Dan and Brian were busy blowing the deux punx shoestring budget on mojitos by the pool in LA. For a life long Giants fan and a life long Padres fan these two are seeming far too comfortable with the LA lifestyle:

LA marketing meeting

Counting down

So we're getting closer to harvest now and I think the pressure of the whole thing is starting to get to Dan.



We've got to hurry up and get our grapes before he does something drastic!!